Former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee on the sedition charges against JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar. "If someone says 'Afzal Guru ka conviction galat tha' that's not sedition. Being critical of the government is not sedition, saying that Afzal Guru's execution was wrong is not sedition."


Terming the arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar for sedition as "deplorable', eminent Sorabjee asked if his (Kumar's) words and actions really amounted to sedition. "What did he do? Did he merely shout slogans like 'Pakistan zindabad'? Arresting him for that? I mean that's deplorable. That is not sedition. Sedition, the Supreme Court has said, are the acts which have a tendency and intention to disturb law and order or incite violence. After all, it is a section which gives you life imprisonment, has very serious consequences. So the Supreme Court has construed it in that fashion and said it very clearly that even if you use words that vigorously criticise the government or comment on the actions of the government, that is not sedition. That is our law, that is how Section 124A was interpreted and upheld as constitutional by a Constitution Bench," said Sorabjee.